1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital camera. More specifically, the present invention relates to a digital camera having a normal image pickup mode for taking images of an object one by one, a continuous image pickup mode for picking up images of an object continuously, a normally picked up image reproduction mode for reproducing images picked up in the normal image pickup mode, and a continuously picked up image reproduction mode for reproducing images picked up in the continuous image pickup mode.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, a digital camera has a normal image pickup mode (single still image pickup mode) for picking up still images of an object one by one, and a continuously image pickup mode for picking up still images of an object continuously at a prescribed period. The picked up images are stored in a built-in image memory in the order of pick up. In a reproduction mode, an image read from the image memory is displayed on a liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as an LCD). When a desired image is selected from the reproduced images and handed to a printing bureau, a print just like a photograph is obtained.
In the conventional digital camera, however, the plurality of images picked up in the continuous image pickup mode are not classified into groups session by session of continuous image pickup operations, but simply stored in the image memory in the order of image pickup as with the images picked up in the normal image pickup mode. Therefore, searching of an image has been difficult to select a desired image to be handed to the printing bureau.
In order to solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 6-233225 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,987), for example, discloses a method of image data recording of a digital still video camera. According to the recording method, a directory for storing files of image data picked up by a digital still video camera having a plurality of image pickup modes is formed, and in the directory, only the files of images picked up by at least one image pickup mode among the plurality of image pickup modes are stored.
Though storing of image data in the directory is described in the prior art mentioned above, specific manner of transferring the image data from the directory to a personal computer, reproducing a desired image by using a browser software, moving, copying or deleting the image, or specific manner of facilitating searching of the image are not described.